Of Shocks and Seashells

Of Ships and Coffins

Disclaimer: Me no no own...

Thalia had had another dream about the boy, though it was a very long time later. So long she had almost forgotten about him. But not quite.

The dream had started pleasantly. She, in the dream, was on a ship, in a gorgeous room, with large, elegant curved windows that reached from the floor to the ceiling. The curtains were open. It was nighttime outside, and the stars glittered sinisterly. The floor was covered in an ornate Persian rug. The air swirled with shadows around Thalia, making her feel cold down to her very bones. Voices whispered all around her—spirits of the dead.

Beware, they whispered. Traps. Trickery.

The strangest thing was that all of the cold, the miserable, fear-inducing cold, was coming from the back of the room. Thalia turned, feeling her foot grind against the floor, and saw an enormous golden casket laid on a velvet dais at the back of the room. It was carved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths, and was emitting a faint glow —the only source of light in the room. Evil practically radiated from it. The sarcophagus scared Thalia, but worse, it seemed to be calling out to her, telling her to come closer.

A cold laugh startled her. It seemed to come from miles below the ship. You don't have the courage, young one. You can't stop me.

Then Thalia saw movement to her right, so she turned slightly. That boy. The boy from before. He was here. With her.

Somehow, the thought comforted her. She wasn't alone.

He took out an ordinary pen from his shirt pocket. His shirt was orange. It had the words "Camp Half-Blood" written on it.

Camp Half-Blood? A faint flutter of recognition sounded in the back of Thalia's mind. Camp Half-Blood...she had heard that name before.

A shimmering bronze blade sprung out from what used to be the pen. It glittered slightly in the golden light. Anaklusmos. The Riptide. Ghosts whirled around the boy like a tornado. Beware!

The boy looked scared, his face a ghostly pale sheen. He couldn't seem to make his feet move, but Thalia could see the determination in his eyes.

Then she spoke: "Well, Seaweed Brain?" Why did she keep calling him Seaweed Brain? He looked pretty intelligent.

He looked over at Thalia funnily, like something was wrong with her.

"Well?" she asked, growing a bit impatient. "Are we going to stop him or not?" Him? Who was he?

The boy didn't answer or move; he still looked petrified.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Leave it to me and Aegis."

She tapped her wrist and her silver chains transformed— flattening and expanding into a huge shield. It was silver and bronze, with the monstrous face of Medusa protruding from the center. It looked like a death mask, as if the Gorgon's real head had been pressed into the metal. Thalia smiled. Aegis petrified people. Not in the oh my gods, I'm turning to stone kind of way, but in the oh my gods that thing is scaring the living daylights out of me kind of way. Just being near it made most people cold with fear. In any fight, Thalia was almost impossible to beat if she had Aegis with her. Any sane enemy would turn and run.

Thalia drew her sword (A/N: Whuuut? Since when does she have a sword?) and advanced on the sarcophagus. The shadowy ghosts parted for her, scattering before the terrible aura of her shield.

"No," she heard the boy say, trying to warn her, but she had to destroy whatever was in the box. She didn't listen. She marched straight up to the sarcophagus and pushed aside the golden lid.

For a moment she stood there, gazing down at whatever was in the box. Thalia's body went numb and she felt sick to her stomach. The had coffin begun to glow.

"No." Talia's voice trembled. "It can't be."

From the depths of the ocean, the same ancient voice Thalia had hear before laughed so loudly the whole ship trembled.

"No!" Thalia screamed as the sarcophagus engulfed her in a blast of a golden light.

Wow, thought Thalia. Defeated by a freaking coffin. Way to go, Thals.